Face to Face: The Importance of In Person Civic Action with Common Power

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum is delighted to welcome Common Power Executive Director Charles Douglas and Sr. Program Manager, Fieldwork Binh Truong for a conversation on the importance of in-person, on the ground civic action.

Join us to learn about Common Power's fieldwork philosophy in action, and how it fosters diverse teams and empowers young leaders to actively engage in politics and hone their skills.

Charles Douglas was an on-and-off volunteer before leaving a 13-year career at Starbucks in marketing and e-commerce to create Common Power as a formal political organization. While at Starbucks, Charles helped found the Black employee affinity group and expand it across the nation, and brings much of that experience to this next phase of Common Power. Now as a family of organizations that interact with politics in different ways, Charles leads the hybrid PAC and 501c4 bodies of work focused on direct election impacts and education as an on-ramp to civic engagement.

As a graduate of the first Action Academy cohort in 2020, Binh Truong uses their experience to plan and coordinate programs within CP Future. This includes working with Larcy Douglas to craft the curriculum of future Action Academy cohorts and helping to establish CPFuture as a 501(c)(3) organization.

Common Power works to foster, support and amplify a democracy that is just and inclusive. We provide creative on-ramps to civic fieldwork, expand the people engaging in and benefiting from it, and sustain this effort by investing in the next generation of leaders.